Archive for November, 2008
Fried Turkey
Some pics of the Fried Turkey Experience yesterday. I used a new rub Amy found online. Couple of things to remember if you decide to fry a turkey.
First, don’t let all the ‘scary’ talk keep you from trying this. They taste awesome, relatively easy and quick to cook and your wife will love you forever now that you are cooking the turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas. (Of course, she’s supposed to love you forever anyway…)
Second, DO PAY ATTENTION TO A COUPLE OF IMPORTANT DETAILS.
DETAIL ONE: Only fry dry, thawed turkeys. To do otherwise will result in an incredible explosion worthy of Mythbusters. The problem with said explosion is that you will be to close to enjoy it and your house won’t appreciate it at all.
DETAIL TWO: Fry it outside. Seems to be common sense but then again that sense has never been that common.
DETAIL THREE: Keep your PEANUT oil below 325/350 degrees. Use only peanut oil. You’ll see some folks talk about cooking the bird at 350 but problem with this is the longer you fry, the hotter it gets and the back 10 to 12 minutes of the fry you’ll watch your oil get close to 400 degrees and that’s a bad place to be. It’s bad because the fire risk is greater and you’ll burn the bejesus out of your bird.
I get the oil to 325. The temp will drop to 300 but it will climb back up. Cook the bird 3 1/2 minutes per pound.
The Rub:
16 ounces of Italian dressing (Only use 12 ounces for the mix below).
1/2 cup cayenne pepper
1/2 cup of black pepper
1 cup of cajun seasoning (Tony C’s)
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
It sounded ridiculously hot but we decided to try it. The ‘marinade’ ended up being a rub, with the consistency of wet sand. Rub that stuff all over the turkey and underneath the skin. Pour the other 4 ounces of Italian dressing inside the bird and let it soak in for over 7 hours.
Pulled the turkey out 30 minutes before cooking. Let the turkey drain the Italian dressing out, got the peanut oil to 325 and we were ready to DANCE!!!
Tasted great – the ‘heat’ of the rub cooked off and left the turkey with a nice flavor. All of the kids loved it and ate it so it wasn’t hot at all. Letting the turkey ‘rest’ after you pull it out of the fryer is a must. Let’s the juices get back in the bird and you’re not trying to slice a 180 degree turkey.
After the meal, we lounged around with our neighbors – little Sammy loves hanging with Coop. Started to snow and the girls played outside.
Ski Day 2 & 3, Breckenridge
For Thanksgiving this year, we headed up to Breckenridge for a couple of days. The snow has not been good. Only man-made stuff but we’re kinda pressed for time to get in as many days as we can so we can’t really be picky at this point.
I’m glad we went.
The weather was great – hoovered between 37 to 42 both days. Breck only has two peaks open. Peak 8 is the gondola serviced peak and where some intermediate runs are open. Peak 9 is one long green run from mid-mountain to base.
If you’re going up – take the gondola to Peak 8. Ride Lift 7 to the top then ski over to Peak 9. Hardly any crowds, great snow. We skied Peak 8 on Wednesday and it was a complete madhouse. I’m not anti-snowboarders but why is it that they are always the one flying down the mountain running into people when I’m around?
We had a lot of fun. Here are some pics.
My Thankful List for 2008
I’m skiing today in the most beautiful place on the planet – the Colorado Rockies – with the person I love more than air – Amy. I’m thankful for that.
I’m blessed beyond measure with 3 kids who think I’m funny, love the Lord, aren’t afraid of goofing off, will still play Xbox with me, and actually are looking forward to moving to Kansas.
We’ve been blessed this year to have 2 churches love us and treat us like royalty. We’re thankful for Pinecrest and Western Hills.
We’ve got an extended family that reaches around the globe: Budapest, Hungary; Orlando, Florida; Grove Hill, Alabama; Kansas City, Kansas; Seattle, Washington.
I’m thankful for the stress of selling of house in this market…because it means we have to trust God more.
I’m forever humbled and grateful for the opportunity in Croatia. Not so much for what I brought to the table – because it wasn’t much – but because of the profound effect it had on me.
We’re grateful for ‘family’ with different last names and living in places like Dallas, Houston, Little Rock, Emporia, and Fayetteville. For the ‘family’ here that we do life with – our Life Group and team at Pinecrest.
We’re thankful for our country. It’s flaws and all, still the best place in the world to live and worship.
We’re thankful for another wonderful year of adventure and wonder in chasing Jesus.
And I’m thankful that you were on the journey with me. Here’s to 2009.
Relational Nature of Church?
This is becoming one of those posts that is gaining a life of its own. In the comments I made this observation – the double edged sword of working with non-profits.
Volunteers are the life blood of any non-profit. A good volunteer can be worth two paid workers. They are there because they believe in the mission (ideally) of the organization. It’s impossible to put a price tag on that kind of dedication.
The flip side of this is that you can’t fire a volunteer. Not without some heavy consequences. Why would you want to get rid of a volunteer? Same reasons companies fire workers – unproductive, cancer on the team, personality conflicts, can’t get on board with vision, whatever. To remove a volunteer comes at a high cost in terms of relational equity and emotional energy
What makes this situation even more dicier is this – most leaders in non-profits lead with benefits, not mission. What I mean is we ‘manipulate/recruit people to serve by extolling all of the benefits of serving, not the mission itself.
When this happens – we set ourselves up for failure because at some point, everything changes. A program or trip that once was the greatest thing in the world is no longer needed or useful. Or has to be drastically overhauled. Now we are ‘taking away’ in their minds the core of why they volunteered. They never saw the program as a tool to accomplish the mission. They saw it AS THE MISSION. And some of that confusion has to fall on us – we cast it in that light to start with.
Don’t get me wrong – the relational aspect of ministry is one of the richest, deepest experiences ever. It’s awesome and I have friends all over the country that are close to prove it. But it’s not THE MISSION of ministry. It’s an awesome benefit and at times it IS why we keep doing what we’re doing, especially in those dark times.
But the ultimate point of what we do is to connect people to Jesus and as leaders our biggest contribution to this is keeping this in front of our people, all the time in ways they get it and has meaning.
Failure
This was the topic of our Downtown Lunch Club. It was the last one for me here in Denver. I guess I’ll have to crank one up in Topeka.
How is failure framed in your work culture? Is it seen as an event? I stole this straight from Seth Godin’s blog. Is failure seen as a learning experience or something that should always be avoided? How do you create a culture where it is okay to fail? Are there limits to how much failure is tolerated?
How did Jesus deal with failure? How many different ways did Jesus deal with failure? How could that be translated in the workplace?
Lots of great insights and stories hit the table.
One question I had as I left the lunch was this – why in the business world failure is seen differently than in the church world? Let’s say we started a program that halfway through it we realized was a failure (it cost too much, demanded too much volunteer time, had little to no ‘bang’, wasn’t accomplishing the set out goals). In the business realm, it appears easier to stop that program and reallocate the resources to something else or create a new something else that would accomplish the goals.
In ministry, why is the general response to be keep that program on life support until the very end? Is it the relational investment? Don’t businesses have the same kind of relational investment? Or is it the culture that the program is started in? Would it be possible to do ministry where the mission so marinates everything we do that we are able to evaluate, change, reallocate resources, maybe even end certain programs so that we could continue to do (or improve) other things that DO accomplish our goals without the dramatic explosion of emotions that normally encompass change inside a church?
I’ve always tried to create a culture where failure isn’t the worst thing that can happen. In fact, I try to embrace failure as an opportunity for something better. It’s gotten dicey a couple of times. One particular instance comes to mind immediately. I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this story before but I can’t find the link and besides that – it’s worth retelling.
We had a middle school lock-in and we had a couple of our upperclassmen help with the entertainment. These two guys were juniors in high school at the time, were leading their own small group. By 10 am the morning after the lock-in, I started hearing from some parents who were very angry about the night before.
Turns out that these guys showed a PG-13 movie. Not just any PG-13 movie, but Austin Powers: Goldmember at a middle school church lock-in. It was a dumb, bad decision. Quite a few parents were ready for blood and on a certain level, I didn’t blame them.
I had two meetings that week. The first meeting was with the two students. It wasn’t pretty. They got lit up pretty hard by me. I let them read the emails I was getting from parents. They understood.
I then turned around and met with the parents and I took responsibility for it. Told them it was my fault. It was – I left those guys in charge, trusted their leadership and it turned out badly. But it also allowed me to tell those parents that I would take the risk again because I believed if students were given the opportunity to lead, we’d see awesome things take place for God. So while I was sorry, while I had made a mistake this time, I wouldn’t stop putting students in charge of ministry.
We actually had a few families leave the church because of this.
Fast forward 1 year later and the same two guys are feeding the homeless underneath the Broadway Bridge in Little Rock. They take their whole small group of teenage guys to do this every other Tuesday night. That turns into a youth group project making beds for a shelter.
All of that to say – leaders must be able to see past the failure to the value beyond it, to the possibilities beyond it. It’s on us to create cultures where failures are not the final word but rather opportunities for something greater.
Let’s Just Face it…
The Broncos aren’t a good team.
The Broncos missed the playoffs yesterday around the 9 minute mark in the 4th quarter. I called it as we were walking out of the stadium yesterday. To lose at home against the Raiders was inexcusable…unless you’re just not good.
And that’s were I’m heading with my Broncos. We’re a botched call (Chargers), a last second field goal (Saints), and a dropped pass (Atlanta) from being 3-8. Same record as the Raiders.
“But those games count…” Not really. I have a feeling this will be the year the NFL tries to figure out how to keep certain division leaders from going to the playoffs (See AFC West and NFC North). The playoffs aren’t going to happen for the Broncos – at least I thought that until I saw the choke job the Chargers pulled on Sunday night.
What’s worse – to get blown off the field like Denver or continually snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like the Chargers? Too close to call.
Where to start? Defense not showing up in 2nd half? Offense forgetting what a crossing route or screen pass was? Special teams leaving 13 points on the field? What’s with the deep ball every other play? The only place where the Raiders have any talent is in the secondary. Why keep throwing the ball there?
As we were leaving the stadium, the Raider Nation was in full swing. I only had one comment…
“At least we’re not owned by Al Davis.”
The good news? The atmosphere was great until the 4th quarter and I was with my son and two great friends. I love going to the games…I just with the rest of the team would show up.
Tech, Sooners, and the BCS Mess
The game was terrible. The commentating was terrible. Tech was Terrible with a capital T.
Hearing Boomer Sooner all night long was terrible that was only made worse when the TV cut to Brian Bosworth which was made worse by hearing the Big 12 Apologists as commentators which was made worse by… oh wait, Oklahoma scored again.
I hate the Sooners. I hate their song. It’s worse than Rocky Top. I hate the stupid wagon thing that got penalized on national TV. Their logo ought to be changed from the OU to UZI. I think they have the ugliest cheerleaders in the nation.
Okay, that was a cheap shot. The wagon is actually pretty cool.
What the Sooners did wasn’t a huge surprise. Tech hadn’t played a defense that talented or physical all season. And neither has Oklahoma but I digress, Tech just got manhandled in the trenches on both sides of ball.
Who should win the Big 12 South? Texas. It’s a no brainer. They beat Oklahoma. Beat them badly on a neutral field. They are one dropped interception from being undefeated. And they are not Oklahoma.
But watch the BCS screw this up and rank Oklahoma ahead of Texas. Getting lost in all of this is the Big 12 Championship game. You gotta believe that Missouri is just watching and listening and stewing over being forgotten. Here’s hoping they take advantage of their chance to make life miserable for the BCS.
In the SEC, it’s simple. Last Gladiator standing goes to BCS Championship game. Florida/Alabama in the championship is going to be AWESOME. That defense against that offense…it will be great. By the way – every time Alabama has gone to the SEC Championship game, they’ve faced Florida.
The Lost Cell Phone
I can’t find my cell phone. I’ve tried calling it and (wait for this moment of brilliance…) it’s either…
run out of battery…
on silent mode….
or so put in a place that it will never be found again.
And as much as I’d love an excuse to get a new phone (iPhone), that’s not really an option right now.
God – I need You to sell my house AND find my cell phone. How selfish is that prayer???
Raider Hater Week
This week just got better.
I was given tickets to Bronco game this weekend. Coop, Aim, and I are going to the game.
Go Broncs.
Answering The Same Questions
Here’s a helpful FAQ concerning our move:
Will you become a Chiefs fan?
Obviously asked by people who don’t have a clue and don’t know the English family.
No. Good heavens, no. I can never remember a time in my live when I didn’t bleed orange and blue for the Broncos. I moved here to Denver when I was 7 years old, froze my butt off in games at the old Mile High Stadium. I remember Craig Morton wearing 7 before 7 wore 7 and now 7 will never be worn again. (Did you follow all of that?) I have a Broncos pennant with Haven Moses autograph on it.
Besides that, it’s debatable if the Chiefs even have a professional team anymore but I’ll save that for a later post.
How can we be praying for you?
Sell the house. We need God to sell the house.
Topeka, Kansas?
I’m not sure if this qualifies as a question but I’ve heard it a lot. We love Topeka. When we lived in Emporia, it was where we would go to play. Great city, small town feel but big town benefits. Close to Jayhawk country, 60 miles from KC where there are some fantastic places to eat and my parents live there.
It’s the capital city. It’s not flat. It’s quite an attractive city really. No, it’s not Denver but then again, nowhere else on the planet is like Denver.
How are the kids taking it?
They are actually pretty excited about the whole deal. This is clearly God’s hands on them. Camber and Cooper are pumped to have me preach more. (I realize that as they get older – this may change but for now I’m enjoying the moment.) Cayden thinks the Ladenburger girls will move in with us and become big sisters. (I haven’t told her the truth about that yet.)
They are sad they are leaving their friends and their school. But we’ve seen a maturity and a heart for ministry in them that I don’t think we realized was that deep.
Amy – I’ll let her speak for herself. 
Are you nervous about the transition from students to adult ministry?
No. I’ve been doing adult ministry for years. Working with parents, life group leaders, and volunteers.
What I’m nervous about is maintaining a decent pace once I get there.
When did you know that you knew this was going to happen?
When they counted the last vote on November 9th.
What are you most looking forward to in the new role?
Hard to answer because the two things I love most – teaching and discipling leaders – I’m already doing. I’m looking forward to the people, honestly. We’ve met some incredible people through this process and I’m stoked about working with them.
Of course that’s also the hard part of leaving here – the people.
And the skiing.
24-20, 6-4, Contender or Pretender?
One of many questions I have this morning as I think about the Bronco’s performance against Atlanta.
Why not keep Spencer Larsen to the MLB position?
Why not keep the current linebackers in when the others get healthy?
Why not just start Pope and Hillis in the backfield, using Bell as relief?
Why not keep blitzing on 3rd down?
Why not keep using Elvis on passing downs instead of every down?
It was the first game this season where the defense showed passion and played smart. The linemen actually kept the linebackers free to make tackles. The linebackers actually attacked the ball. There were still too many mental errors (offsides on a 4th down, 3 big plays at crucial times, dropped interceptions) to be a good defense but we’re beyond that hope. We’ll take acceptable or average and yesterday the Broncos gave us a little better than average performance.
It’s tempting to look at the win against Atlanta and say – “They should have beat this team.” But Denver has a history of choking when playing on turf, in a dome, on the road, in the Eastern Time Zone and against teams that can run the ball. Atlanta was all those things, Denver didn’t play a great game and still won.
Cutler – no picks. Offense – no giveaways. Special teams were special. Defense was average/above average. I’ll take it.
Matt Ryan played like a 3 year player, not the rookie he is. He’ll be a great quarterback.
Dre “Toast” Bly – you got handled all day long, you make one pick on a fair catch ball. Just toss the ball to the ref and shut your mouth. We don’t want to see you celebrate catching a ball my 10 year old could catch after the entire league has abused you all season long.
Winborn – love the passion. Catch the ball.
Peyton Hillis – the definition of a ‘football player.’
Spencer Larsen – see above.
Eddie Royal – special player.
Ryan Clady – a man among boys.
The Chargers losing to Pittsburgh gives the Broncs a 2 game lead in the AFC West. Chief fans – take heart. Yes, you are 1-9 and could likely only win one more game all year. But more than likely that win will be against Denver and it looks like you’ve found a starting QB. Now all you need is a coach.
I hear Norv Turner will be available at the end of the season.
Going To Topeka, Kansas
After a long process of hide and seek with God, we’re heading to Topeka, Kansas for me to be the Lead Pastor at Western Hills Baptist Church.
We told the students and our ministry team leaders this past week. The slow leak is happening on Facebook. We’re telling the rest of the congregation this morning.
It wasn’t part of “The Plan” to leave Pinecrest, Parker, or this beautiful state. But someone famous once said “We make plans and God laughs.” Or maybe someone famous didn’t say it and it’s one of those quotes that really isn’t a quote, everyone just thinks it’s a quote.
The long journey of how we got to Western Hills is told here. We’ve experience polar opposite sets of emotions through this process but we’re confident this is God’s call.
There will be a lot of dinners, lunches, coffees, thank yous, tears and laughter in the next few weeks ahead.
Our last Sunday at Pinecrest will be December 28th (our 17 year wedding anniversary).
The Long Journey To Western Hills
It was about 8 months ago that a friend of mine (Danny Payne) said to me ‘You ought to think about submitting your name for the Lead Pastor of Western Hills.’ He’d been on staff there, loves the church deeply and honestly thought there could be a fit there.
I honestly thought he was on drugs. My exact response was: “Thanks. I’ll pray about it. No.”
He mentioned how awesome it was to see a man of prayer in action. I’m pretty sure he was being sarcastic.
Then Croatia happened and changed everything. He gets to write the story, I don’t.
Danny P and I ended up having the same conversation after Croatia. I was in the middle of the same response when the Spirit just popped in and said…”Are we going to have to go back to Croatia?”
So I sent in my resume. I didn’t even update it. In fact, I almost forgot to tell Amy. We’re laying in bed talking about the day and I think I said something like – “Yeah, had lunch with my guys Downtown, blogged on the Broncos, and sent my resume to Danny Payne.”
“That’s great. Hope you enjoy seeing the kids on the weekends.”
Typically, not updating your resume is not a good idea. You generally want your resume to include things like a current address, phone number, and/or email address. Mine had none of those things. It did have this website. I wouldn’t recommend this course of action but I think it was my subconscious kicking in. Somehow the Search Team tracks me down, sends me a questionnaire.
I fill out the questionnaire. The whole time I’m thinking – “See God? Are you watching? I’m obeying. I’m passing this test of if I’d be WILLING to leave Pinecrest. Now leave me alone.”
I figured that would be the end of it. They’d read my answers, see the blog, see the earring, hear the messages online and that would pretty much kill any chance I had to be a lead pastor in a Baptist Church.
Then the phone rang. It was a Monday night during a football game. It was the Search Team wondering if they could fly us out for an interview.
I started repeating every thing the Search Team said to me so that Amy could keep up with the conversation. Neither one of us were ready for this. I’m officially wigged out at this point. They’ve been listening to the messages online, reading the blog. Want to meet face to face. I felt like I was in a three-way wrestling match between me, God, and Western Hills.
“I just can’t come to Topeka.”
It wasn’t a “No” but more like a “Not yet.” Instead we sent them a questionnaire to fill out for us.
What happened next was one of the many confirmations that God would give us over the next few months. They put that questionnaire in the hands of over 40 key leaders of the church. They returned to us every single original form. Not a doctored compilation document. Not a summary sheet. But every single sheet of paper from every single leader. Unvarnished. Raw. Authentic.
The next step was them meeting me at Oasis, a youthworkers conference in Emporia. They came and hung out with me that day, invited me up to lunch the next day. After two days of conversations, one of the Search Team guys drilled into me pretty good.
He said something along the lines of “You keep saying – ‘if this process continues.’ When are you going to realize we want you and you’re going to have to figure out what God is telling you?”
It was a statement that I hadn’t heard in over two years. What is God telling you to do? What is God telling you to do? I had a group of friends in LR that joked around what we needed was a bunch of parrots to put on people’s shoulders and that would be the only thing this parrot would say. “Brawkkkk, What is God telling you?” In times of hard decisions, we’d do the normal questions and prodding of each other then one of us would always say – Where’s the parrot? Are you listening to the Parrot?
Instead of flying us to Topeka, I wanted them to come to Parker. I wanted them to hang out with us at our church, experience a service, hang out with my staff team, my elders, and my youth volunteers. I wanted them to eat dinner at our house and enjoy a night just sitting around talking.
And they did all of that. It blew their minds to the access and openness we had here. It was painful for us. Two churches sat in my living room being the Church. Lots of questions and thoughts, lots of tears. Talked about everything and anything. They got to ask hard questions of the team about what I’m “really” like. WHBC got to taste what living in community is really about, how wonderful and painful it can be. We all got to hear God say ‘This is what I want’ with clarity, no doubts. It made things simpler…not necessarily easy.
We went out to Topeka last weekend to preach and meet the entire church. I was nervous and anxious going into Sunday morning. Not about my sermon. Not about the process. Would the larger congregation give a young guy with a passion for Jesus that just so happens to have a soul patch and an earring a chance? Search Team had months to get to know us. This congregation had less than one day.
Fear unfounded. It could not have gone any better. It felt like a homecoming of sorts. Kids loved it. We loved it. They loved us.
So we end one journey on December 28th, start another on the next Sunday.
Now you know the rest of the story…
Aim and Facebook
Aim has an annoying habit of correcting my grammar when it comes to my status on Facebook. She’s obsessive compulsive about it. In fact, whenever anybody messes up their status line – I hear it from Amy.
Alright, maybe not every time but it does bug her when people don’t erase the “is” on their status line and it reads something like this…
“Grant English is went to the store.”
or
“Suzanne Davidson is likes to sleep when the kids are playing in the kitchen with sharp knives.”
(Suzanne does NOT let her kids play with sharp knives. Nor does she sleep when they do…if they did…at least to my knowledge.)
Anyway, I’ve had a couple of status reports that weren’t exactly up to her grammatical standards the last few days. As a result I’m going to have to start doing it on purpose now and I need some ideas.
“Grant is likes the new movie of James Bond.”
“Grant is thinks the Broncos will beat the snot out of Atlanta.”
“Grant is the downstairs couch is very comfortable.”
Answering Wayne
As always, Wayne asks great questions.
What has 4 years of blogging done for me? Is it worthwhile?
Yes – it’s worthwhile. Whenever I get to a place where this becomes work, I take a week or two off. I own the blog, the blog doesn’t own me.
It’s made me a better communicator. Both as a writer and speaker.
I’ve met a ton of new friends.
I’ve been able to spread the joy of uniforms.
Has it achieved the ends you thought it would?
Tougher question. I don’t know if I had any solid goals for starting the blog. At one point I thought it would be great place for some real authentic, raw community – but that can’t completely happen online. There are some things that get lost without non-verbal communication. So I try to be as vulnerable and real as I can but there are limits.
On the other hand, there are some posts/thoughts that seemed to take a life of their own. I had no idea how much of an impact they would have and how helpful they would be.
The Man’s Classification of Cars and NFL Uniform Rankings being two examples of this. Chuck Norris and The Best 3-Piece Band are another two. You just never know what is going to scratch an itch out there.
4 Years Of Blogging
This post started it all.
Tom Seely – my brother-in-law who resides in Budapest and used to blog but doesn’t anymore – he got me started. Rob Williams helped me immensely that first year.
I need to say a huge thank you to those of you who continue to comment, visit, read, and otherwise harass me to no end. Without you…I’d still have my dignity. But that’s not important right now.
Some stats:
1,625 posts over a 4 year period. A little over 400 posts a year which is a little over a post a day.
5,145 comments. 171,128 spam comments caught.
Anyone care to share what’s been some of their favorite posts or highlights?
27-20, 10-0, #1
Roll Tide.
The LSU game loomed on the calendar all season long. Death Valley is a nightmare place to play – over 94,000 in attendance this past weekend – and we all know how much Saban is loved and welcomed back.
First, neither team played to the best of their ability. Turnovers and penalties made it crystal clear that neither team was firing on all cylinders. Having said that, Alabama won. Which may be good enough to get through the rest of the season…but it won’t get them past Florida.
What isn’t good enough? Special Teams. Fumbles and missed field goals made this a much closer game that it needed to be. Alabama left 13 points on the field in this category. (Giving 7 on the fumble, 2 missed field goals). Try that against Texas Tech or whoever the Big 12 sends to the championship game and it will be over quick.
Speaking of Texas Tech, should they be the Number 1 team in the nation? I wish they were. I’d be just fine with Alabama at #2. There’s a decent argument for it – they beat Texas, beat Oklahoma State. Just like Bama, they have a couple of more big games left on the ticket – namely Oklahoma and Missouri. Their work isn’t done yet.
Texas Tech’s offense is staggering. They have a ton of weapons. On the other hand, they haven’t played a SEC defense. The Big 12 puts their best athletes on offense and they’ve got the quarterbacks and receivers to prove it. SEC puts theirs on defense. They’ve got the lineman and linebackers to prove that. Can’t wait to see that match up.
Youthworker/Parent Weekend Wrap-Up
I’m done speaking for the conference.
It was good…great to reconnect with some old friends, meet some new ones.
Richard Ross spoke and did an outstanding job.
A couple of thoughts about the retreat. First, the concept is great. Get parents and youthworkers away for a weekend. I love it. The execution of it wasn’t all that great. The value of having a weekend with the parents of the youth in your group is the relational connection you could have. But the weekend didn’t allow a lot of that. When the parents were in sessions, the youthworkers were in worship and vice versa.
Then the meals ended up being infomercials, not relational face time.
Overall, it was a good experience. One that could be awesome with some tweaking.
Other news – the fam went and saw Madagascar 2 tonight. It was….average. It was a slow movie. I thought it was funny but then I started thinking about the funny parts and they all were either the penguins or Sasha Cohen’s character – King Lemur.
Fun weekend so far.
34-30 and The Infirmary
Denver may have just found a way to win the rest of the year.
Run the Spread. The Fun and Gun. The Marshall Plan. The BBC Royal Show. (Brandon, Brandon, Cutler).
I mean, who are we kidding anyway? The Broncos are no serious threat to run the ball. Ever. Torain is hurt. Selvin Young – hurt. Hall and Pitman – gone. Put Hillis in, let him run routes out of the backfield and let’s put astro turf in Mile High.
We don’t need a defense. And it’s a good thing with all three starting linebackers gone, CB gone and the defensive line has never bothered to show up all season anyway.
Couple of thoughts – First, Brandon Marshall is still an immature, easily distracted player.
Second, every dime spent on Brandon Stokely is worth it. After the TD catch, Stokely ran over to Brandon and kept him from pulling off whatever celebration he was going to do.
But above all of that, this game was the season for the Broncos and Cutler proved he has the goods to be THE elite quarterback in the NFL. Brady Quinn also showed why he will be (and should remain) the starting QB of the Browns. He played well. His TE – lost his head, fumbled, then dropped a pass for a first down.
Once again, Cleveland gets snakebit by Denver. And Elway wasn’t even in the state.
Kids Don’t Care Where They Go Postal
I’m once again at Chic-fil-a and a mom sitting across me is completely mortified.
She told her precious little 4 year-old girl that she couldn’t have ice-cream if she didn’t finish her meal. The weeping and gnashing of teeth began. The screams of “ICCCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEE-CCCCRRRRRRRRRREAAAAMMMMMM” have penetrated the upper regions of the stratosphere, shattering windows.
Mom reaches across the table to squeeze the girl hard to get her to stop. I honestly didn’t think it could louder…but it did.
“WHYYYYYYY DIDDDDD YOU SQUEEEEEZE ME????????!!!!!!!!!!”
Mom wants to crawl under the table. Now the 2 year old wants in on the action.
I understand bribery and it works. I’m not saying you should always do it. I’m saying there are times when as a parent, you are just outmanned and outgunned. Bill Cosby used to say he could take over the world with a classroom full of 5-year olds. He’s right.
There is no way at this point this mom is going to NOT get her ice cream. Not going to happen. I don’t blame her. That’s what so amazing about kids – they don’t care what is going on around them. Just let it go, man!!
Years later, that little girl will say this about her parents – “My parents are dorks, they’re so out of touch, they just don’t get it.”
I hear it all the time. I tell students this – “They weren’t always that way. They used to be cool, hip, fly, with it, on it, rock it awesome people who had a mind and could complete a sentence without saying “STOP THAT.”
What happened to them?
They had you.
Just Tired
I head out to Salina, Kansas this weekend to speak at a youthworker/parent conference and I’m kind of dragging this morning.
I’d like to thank Wayne for his nice response. As soon as I get done with this post, I’m calling you Wayne.
Tonight, I’ll watch the Broncos choke it up against the Browns. It’s not that the Browns are good…it’s Denver is folding up like a cheap tent.
But my overall feel today – just tired.
Wanye “The Stallion” Birthday Letter
Wayne – a frequent commenter and stirrer of the pot here at the G sides – turns 50 today. I think it’s 50. It’s hard to tell with the Italian mafia types. I mean, they could be 30 or 80 but they look 50. Especially when they dress in pinstripes…which Wayne does often.
But I must say that Wayne is one of my dearest friends. He’s the only guy that has ever reduced me to tears of laughter on the golf course to the point where I couldn’t finish the round. We were playing in Little Rock and he rips a 7 iron right into the side of the house directly behind the green. It wasn’t one of those loft shots that just lands on the house. It was a smoking line drive shot that was still rising when it made contact. We were pretty sure it went through the house and across the street.
I couldn’t swing a club the rest of the day.
Wayne introduced me into the wonderful, exciting world of electricity grids. Yeah…..
But I was going to link to Wayne’s blog but it’s dead. Maybe you can find him on Facebook and tell him happy birthday.